CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--A coalition of disability rights activists met
Tuesday with leaders of the American Medical Association to discuss the
association's reaction to the treatment that a Seattle couple ordered their
6-year-old daughter with disabilities to undergo in order to keep her
physically small.

The advocates represented ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, and Feminist Response in
Disability Activism, and included Donna Harnett, the mother of an 11-year-old
boy with disabilities similar to "Ashley X". They met with Dr. Mike Mayes, the
AMA's Executive Vice President and CEO, Dr. Cecil Wilson, Chair of the AMA
Board of Trustees, and Mike Lynch, Vice President of External Communications
for the AMA.

The advocates had asked the nation's largest physicians' group to issue
a formal statement opposing the "growth attenuation" treatment that the girl
endured, which included a hysterectomy, removing her breast tissue, and giving
her massive doses of the hormone estrogen in order to keep her from going
through puberty.

Disability advocates around the world have condemned the practice since
it was made public in an AMA-owned journal last October. Some call the
treatment "mutilation" and "abuse", and worry that other parents would want
their children subjected to similar treatments.

The advocates at the AMA meeting also asked the doctors' organization to
support the Community Choices Act of 2007, which would allow people receiving
long-term care to have their support dollars go toward in-home care rather than
nursing homes and other institutions, and to establish an ongoing dialogue
between the disability and medical communities.

Maves told Medill Reports that he would reply to the disability
advocates by March 6.

As of this writing, more than 500 individuals and groups had signed on
to a statement of solidarity responding to the "Ashley Treatment".

Harnett has developed her own website, showing how her son is living
without such treatment.

AMA leaders had refused to meet with activists when about two dozen
protested outside the association's Chicago headquarters in early January.
According to the Southern Illinoisan newspaper, Maves bowed to pressure to meet
after the protests and the onslaught of telephone calls and faxes from
advocates.